Selected Song: THE SOLAR POWERED LIFE by The Classic Crime
In the next few years, The United States will likley be the world's largest market for solar power. The prices for solar panels have dropped up to forty percent, mostly due to more supply than demand due to the economy. The cost of a five-kilowatt solar rooftop has dropped from $22,000 to $16,000 in the last 18 months. Prices should fall to $13,000 by the end of the year. Federal incentives could include a renewable energy standard, which would require utilities across the country to use renewable energy. Also, a national standard for connecting solar installations to the grid could be possible.
Experts think that many solar projects over the next several years won't succeed, up to 75 percent, due to the infancy of the industry. Smaller solar projects have a better chance than large solar farms, due to these needing to meet land-permit requirements and having to utilize transmission lines. By 2013, the U.S. could account for 25 percent of the world's solar market, up from about 8 percent today. The last part of this article states that, The growing U.S. market has started to attract solar manufacturing. Suntech Power, for example, which currently makes all of its solar panels in China, is building a solar factory in Phoenix this year. "We're the first Chinese company to export jobs to the U.S.," Efird says.
Read the full two page article U.S. Solar Market
Novel tie-in: A homesite development is equipped with solar-powered roofs.
Friday, February 26, 2010
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